October 23, 2019
Volume 146, Issue 9
washburnreview.org
Established 1885
Bods dance the night away at Ball
photo by Matt Self
An exciting opportunity: Health care students crowd a booth at the career fair. They are the future leaders and professionals of tomorrow.
Health Care Career Fair brings opportunities to students Matt Self
Washburn Review
The annual Washburn University Health Care Career Fair drew a wide range of eager students to the Memorial Union to get a head start on their futures in health related fields. As the doors opened for the career fair at noon, a bustling group of students entered the large space to look for job opportunities, of which there was a multitude to choose from. Everyone from occupational therapist majors to nursing majors could be seen on Wednesday, Oct. 16 in the Washburn A/B room. Alliance Home Health Care, Holton Community Hospital, the Kansas Neurological Institute and the Kansas Department of Health & Environment were all in attendance among many others. Each booth held a different career path for students where they could demonstrate their knowledge of their chosen fields to potential employers. “I’m looking for something local preferably,
but whatever catches my eye really,” said PejaNae Black, a junior occupational therapist student. “There’s so many opportunities for health care students here that we don’t realize that we have, especially locally, which can really help us as students.” The career fair also represented a great opportunity for many students to introduce themselves to employers and market themselves to those same professionals. “I’m in the first year of my program and one of the things my instructors wanted us to do was to check out the different career opportunities available to us when we graduate,” said Amanda Kratina, a freshman occupational therapy student. “I’m really into the home health care field and I plan on looking for opportunities in the Topeka area.” Employers who attended the career fair were also excited about the opportunity to meet potential new employees and get to know them better.
“I’ve spoken with ten students so far today but it’s still early,” said Leslie Gish, the Human Resources Director at the Kansas Neurological Institute. “I’ve been talking to a lot of occupational therapist students as we specialize in occupational as well as physical therapy.” All in all, the Health Care Career Fair was a success for all those involved. Many students will go on to find employment in their respective fields and begin their own professional careers. “It’s good to know what’s out there. As you’re getting ready to enter the job market it’s good to know what’s being offered, what the benefits are, what your career is going to look like in twenty years. You need to ask yourself what kind of upward movement can you expect over the years,” said Gish. If you are a Health field major and you missed the career fair this year, don’t sweat it. Another fair will be coming to Washburn next year.
photos by Joelle Conway
And now, pizza: Peri Bailey and Katie Westhusen take a break from dancing to devour some Chartwell’s pizza.
Go Bods: The Top Bods were announced at the Homecoming Ball on Monday, Oct. 21.
Let’s go girls: Nicole Engelken, Taylor Godwin, Nicole Cornelison, Taryn Johnson and Alexa Smith wait patiently by the stage for the homecoming court to be announced.
Mabee offers grant for open access resources Abbie Barth Washburn Review
Mabee Library offers grant to encourage a switch to open access resources. The Washburn Open Textbook Grant is a $500 grant that will be awarded in the spring semester. The purpose of the grant is to increase affordable learning opportunities for students and support faculty in the transition from traditional textbooks to open educational resources. According to the Mabee Library website, an open educational resource is a resource that resides in public domain or was released under intellectual property license for free academic use, online or in print. One of the current grant recipients, sociology and anthropology lecturer Ashley Maxwell, appreciates the accessibility of these resources to students. “Open resources have allowed my students to have direct access to information from the first day of class. At times it has taken students three weeks to get their books. In
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photo courtesy of Madeline Eschenburg
Switch it up: Madeline Eschenburg is a lecturer for the art department. She is a recipient of the Open Textbook Grant.
addition, these resources save students money, which can eliminate issues of income inequity in the classroom,” said Maxwell.
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Another grant winner, art lecturer Madeline Eschenburg, appreciates that open resources are more applicable to society today, unlike textbooks. “Switching to open resources has allowed me to incorporate more readings on how the history of art relates to current issues and events affecting our world today,” said Eschenburg. Open access and public services librarian Amanda Luke says that although the resources are free, a lot of time and effort goes into using them. “The award money is to help cover the amount of time that they spend. It does take some work to make the switch over, and they’re putting time into this. So, we’re paying them for the time that they spend making the switch,” said Luke. According to the Government Accountability Office, the cost of textbooks has risen over 200% since 1997. Luke has been advocating strongly for utilizing open access resources during her time at Washburn.
Gallery: Washburn vs Northwest Missouri State University
“We’re encouraging them to go open access because the cost of textbooks is just astronomical,” said Luke. The current grant winners are Maxwell, Eschenburg, physics and astronomy professor Brian Thomas, English senior lecturer Dennis Etzel Jr., and psychology professor Mike Russell. “Using open resources has helped my students because the textbooks are online, have wonderful information designed by professors in academia, and has financially relieved students. Of course, not all classes could benefit from OER, but those that can should utilize OER. This is an area of class-awareness for me, too,” said Etzel. The grant is open to any Washburn faculty member that will be instructing a course during the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 academic years, and currently assigns a commercial textbook. 16 applicants will receive the grant, but Luke encourages all faculty members to still make the switch to open access resources.
Video: Student athlete interWU’s: Maxwell and Montgomery